thinking about babies

thomas is bigger than mr. frog now and likes to squash his face into the froggy belly. last week, he perfected leveraging his head as a counterweight to get onto our bed. scsi has no refuge on our bed now. thomas likes to get up there and do belly/face flops, just WHAM! face straight into the bed. it actually looks like it should be uncomfortable, but he keeps doing it, so it must be fun.


one thing we have noticed is that after having thomas, we started to really care about the things he is exposed to, esp. chemicals. we really didn't care when it was just us. we used the whole gamut of household cleaners and solvents. but babies are a different story. as parents, you have this overwhelming need to protect them!

we started by switching over from 409/pinesol/clorox, to "simply green" cleaners from Trader Joe's. once we put the hardwood bamboo flooring in, we started using vinegar to clean everything. that stuff is great by the way. you dilute it in water and it will clean almost anything in your house. it is natural, safe for everyone. now i am looking for natural substitutes for windex and that Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner. they work so well, i love using them, but they have lots of chemicals that really aren't good for us to breath in.
if you are interested, for you baby or for your own health, they have a list of unsafe chemicals and safer alternatives at: http://es.epa.gov/techinfo/facts/safe-fs.html
It is part of the US EPA's website.


--------------scary how fast they are growing--------------------

I hear "i don't know how you do it, being home all the time." from working moms quite a bit. i actually used to think i would just go back to work and use day care. i liked working and liked what i was doing. i miss the daily people interaction and of course, making money is always nice. but once thomas was born, when it came down to it, i quit because i felt that this time would be relatively brief (5-7 years) and that i would never have their formative years back. so i chose to stay at home. we tightened down our budget (ouch) and there are definitely bad days when my arm is permanently cramped into place from holding him and i can't think of anything i would rather do than dump him on william.
there is just no easy way for today's working woman. you either sacrifice your child, or your sacrifice your career. it sucks either way. big time. dads really have it sooo much easier.
but overall, it has been so worth it staying at home, that smile gets me every time. yesterday, he ran to me for a hug and kissed me spontaneously. i hugged him back and said "i love you thomas" twice. then i promptly started to cry. so sappy!!! when i told william about my sappiness, he got a little sappy at work too. :)

the pictures we try to take a few times a week also show how fast this time is going by. you never really know what you have until you see the pics on your computer nice and big. these next two pics made me stop in amazment. i just feel like his adult face is almost staring out at me. crazy!! a fellow patron at the local pastry shop said that she has a 16 yr old and that certain expressions he makes still remind her of him when he was a baby. i am so glad that it works in reverse too. i guess that is why our parents always treat us like kids. that is what they see!

but then you catch a look or a pose that reminds you he is still a baby. the way his top lip puckers out in concentration, the way he uses his feet - like a little monkey. that is my favorite nickname for him right now.


he discovered a week or two ago that he can hang from things (like mom and the kitchen island). he also discovered that the cat tree is climbable. YIKES!!! i mean double yikes! i was at the computer and thomas was really quiet. then he started grunting in exertion a little. when i turned around, this is what i saw:

he did manage to get both feet onto that second level before i plucked him off AND he did carry that stool over from the kitchen... smart toddlers...